Tag: Oman Taxi

Oman Taxi Fares for the vehicles coloured orange and white, maybe metered from 2019. There are apparently 36,000 of these taxis in Oman with around 20,000 operating in Muscat.

Taxi Oman

This will mean that all taxis in Oman will have a type of metered fare system.

The proposal is that the fares will be 300baisa (Omani Rial 0.300) for the initial hire and 130baisa (Omani Rial 0.130)per kilometre; with a minimum fare of Rial Omani 1.000. No detail was given regarding the mini-buses which carry up to 13 passengers. A waiting fee of 50baisa per minute will be levied, though as most journeys are simply flagged down this is unlikely to need to be calculated. As most journeys are made sharing the taxi with other passengers, with passengers getting out and joining throughout the journey, the taxi fare is expected to be shared amongst passengers. This sharing will be extremely difficult to operate by meter as few journeys are made with the same passengers from start to finish, people flag the taxi down to get in or off at random places.

The minimum fare is 5 times higher than that for an individual passenger on a short journey.
UPDATE 6th Feb 2019
The government has announced (clarified) that although the taxis must have the meter activated at the start of a hire (journey) it is possible for passengers and the driver to agree the fare by negotiation, presumably done before the journey starts.

Therefore the situation is that while meters must by turned on for each journey (it’s not clear if this is reset each time a person enters a shared taxi) – the actual fare can be negotiated.

Mwasalat Taxi has announced more reductions to its Muscat Airport Taxi charges.

Oman Taxi Mwasalat

Sunday to Thursday 06:00-22:00
The base fare will be Omani Rial 2.500
with a kilometre charge 300 baisa for every km (from 1 km to 30 km)

Sunday to Thursday 22:00-06:00
and weekends (Friday & Saturday) and Public Holidays
The base fare will be Omani Rial 3.000 with a kilometre charge 300 baisa for every km (from 1 km to 30 km) which is the same as normal charges.

Uber may not be in Oman, yet, – but the Middle-East’s own Careem Taxi is. Careem had started in Muscat in May 2017 but stopped at the request of Oman’s government. As Careem must have obtained a licence to operate it was presumably stopped as a result of private sector concerns.

Careem Taxi Oman

The new Careem service will use Marhaba Taxis which currently operate in Muscat (part of the Omani Ingenuity Technologies L.L.C/Suhail Bahwan Group), as the Careem fleet vehicles. Careem’s fares will start at OMR1.250; which Careem say is “in line with regular taxis” (I wonder if they have ever used the orange and white taxis which stary at Rial Omani 0.100).

Careem intends to operate in all major towns in Oman (presumably also through Marhaba); I guess this will mean Suhar, Buraymi, Ibri, Nizwa and Salalah and Sur (the hometown of Suhail Bahwan).

Marhaba Taxi Oman

To use Careem, download their app from iTunes and Google Play. The Careem apps interface may not be 100% informative or intuitive and unfortunately the same can be said about Marhaba.
Check here for other news about Taxis in Oman

Oman’s Ministry of Transport and Communications have said that all Taxis (including the original Orange and White unmetered ones) will soon have fares set by the appropriate government authority . The Ministry intends to study supply & demand and operational costs, throughout the Sultanate.
Its reported vehicles should have a tracking system, presumably